Implementing Climate Governance: Instrument Choice and Interaction

Abstract

At all levels of regulation, the legal response to both causes and impacts of climate change has shifted away from a segmented array of isolated measures and initiatives on specific aspects of global warming, such as policies to manage energy demand or promote research on sustainable alternatives, to an increasingly sophisticated network of regulatory standards, market mechanisms, and other innovative approaches. While the first elements of a new area of law are arguably emerging in the shape of common principles and objectives for sustainable energy use, the countless rules devoted to climate change are still but loosely related and far from becoming a coherent normative framework.